Posted By Daniel Greenfield On February 3, 2013 @ 1:38 pm In The Point | 19 Comments

First legalize the aliens, then secure the border and then put them on a path to citizenship was how Senators tried to sell us on the illegal alien Amnesty plan. (It’s not Amnesty, they pay a fine!)

But even the threadbare border security option does not apply, because the final determination on the ‘trigger’ for moving forward with the path to citizenship is not the blue ribbon commission, but the word of Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

Whether or not the border has been secured and Amnesty for illegal aliens can go forward, will be determined by Obama through his appointee. That’s a roundabout way of saying that the border will not be secured and amnesty will be go forward.

Under a bipartisan Senate framework, Democrats say, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano would have final say over whether the border is secure enough to put 11 million illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship.

The early debate over immigration reform has yielded two thorny questions: What metrics will be used to determine whether the goals for border security and other safeguards against illegal immigration have been met? Who will decide whether the metrics have been achieved?

Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the lead Democratic sponsor of the bipartisan immigration reform framework unveiled this past week, said Napolitano should decide.

“What we’ve proposed is that the DHS secretary, whomever it is, will have final say on [whether] whatever metrics we proposes are met,” Schumer said. “We think those metrics will be quite objective.”

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the lead Republican sponsor of the framework, said the issue is under discussion within the Gang of Eight. “We’re working on a lot of it,” he said.

When a Democrat in a bipartisan has a specific policy proposal and a Republican doesn’t, then the odds are that the movement is headed in the direction of the existing policy proposal.

The so-called commission has already evaporated into a haze or smoke and mirrors.

The Senate framework would create a commission made up of governors, attorneys general and community leaders from Southwestern border states to recommend when border security goals have been met.

They could not render the final judgment, however, because lawmakers fear that would violate the Constitution.

McCain says the commission nevertheless will have a significant influence.

“The Constitution requires that action taken by the Congress is not dictated by a commission. We will be guided to a large degree by their conclusions and recommendations,” he said.

Which is to say the commission will have very little actual relevance and the final decision will rest with executive authority.

The bipartisan Senate group envisions metrics for border security that can be objectively verified, such as target numbers for border patrol agents and unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles.

“They will be objective so there’s not that much leeway,” Schumer said. “What we envision is that because they [are] objective, the advisory committee and DHS will in all likelihood agree.”

Those numbers are objective, but also meaningless. The number of agents and UAV’s is not equivalent to enforcement. And it’s enforcement that’s the problem.

Anyone who believes in Amnesty for illegal aliens has no motivation for keeping them from crossing the border. Letting people who don’t believe in border security determine and implement border security is like letting the fox guard the henhouse.

The Obama Recession means that illegal alien numbers will not be high, initially, and there may even be a continuing net loss, which will look like enforcement, but is actually due to poor economic conditions under Obama. The trigger will be pulled. Then prosperity will return under a more capable leadership in 2016 or 2020, and the illegal aliens will flood back into the country. Meanwhile those already on the path to citizenship will tilt red states like Texas into the blue column, resulting in another Democratic victory and another amnesty.

Rejecting amnesty can help break the cycle Accepting it will only perpetuate it.